Things That Go Bump
by nannygirl
Summary: Kitty begins to experience some spooky incidents in her home and soon she's not the only one who is witnessing these chilling events. Is there really something or someone haunting The Forman House? There is only one way to find out! A family story that is more spooky than scary.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing! I do not own That '70s Show or any of its characters. I do not own any shows, movies, characters or people that may be mentioned throughout this story. I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well and enjoy the month of October! Getting ready for Halloween? Picking out costumes, stocking up on candy, watching scary movies? Or maybe you're just enjoying the fall weather. Whatever you're doing I hope you're having fun. Today I had for you the first chapter of a short multichapter story that I'm hoping will kinda put people in the Halloween Spirit. However, please keep in mind this is not like my Halloween collection last year, 13 Fanfics of Halloween. This one does have chapters that are connected and doesn't have to do too much with Halloween, just kinda helps set the mood. Now this story takes place in no particular season my choice would be sometime in season 5 maybe. I tried to figure out a place to set the story but with the shows wonky timeline I gave up, so picture it when you like but preferably after season 1 :D This chapter is more RK but you'll see more of the kids soon. I hope you all enjoy this story there's about three chapters in total. Please do review if you like it, I'd love to hear you thoughts on things! Thanks for reading, hope you like it, please review if you can, and as always please, Enjoy!_

_Special and BIG Thank You goes to Marla (Marla's Lost) who not only helped me with the title of the story but also gave me the overall idea of the story last year along with many little ideas throughout the story. She was also so kind and supportive in letting me write this story. Thank you Marla! *hug* You are truly the best! :D_

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**Things That Go Bump**

The ceramic salt and pepper shakers of the shinny bright orange pumpkins with a black cat sitting on each of them, were placed at the center of the Forman kitchen table beside the jack-o-lantern candle holder.

It was October 13, 1978 and though Halloween was more than two weeks away Kitty Forman had pulled out the box of Halloween decorations from the basement and was currently unpacking the trinkets and putting them in the spots that they had been first assigned to years ago. The Halloween cartoon cutouts taped onto the windows of the glass door, the statue of the witch in purple hat and cloak at the corner of the bar, and the jack-o-lantern lamp on the newly set up small table by the kitchen shelves—to name just a few.

Kitty was riffling through the box, trying to find anything else that belonged in the kitchen before she moved into the living room when she heard footsteps and voices coming her way. She turned around to find Eric and Hyde walking in from the basement.

"Oh good you boys are here." She said as soon as she saw them, "I need to have a talk with you both."

Both Hyde and Eric froze in their spots behind the kitchen table; the words 'need to have a talk' were never good when they were said by anyone but especially not when they were being said by your mother.

"Kelso did it." the two said together.

The reply caused Kitty's eyebrows to scrunch together. She had no idea what they were talking about however, she shook her head and decided she didn't want to know; she had more important things to talk to her boys about. She let out a small laugh and waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

"No, no. I wanted to talk to you about Halloween." Kitty explained to them, "After all it's only eighteen days away and neither of you have told me what you plan on being this year, I want to make sure I have all the material I need to make those scary or cute Halloween costumes of yours."

Eric tried to avoid his mother's eyes as best he could. He wasn't looking forward to breaking this news to her, but soon gathered his courage and began. "Um yeah about those Halloween costumes Mom, I…I think I'm gonna skip that this year."

Kitty's face dropped, "What? Why?"

"Well first of all because you know, I'm not twelve anymore." Came Eric's reply that made Kitty scowl.

"But Eric, honey, you have to dress up. Dressing up in costumes is part of Halloween." She argued, bringing up another point, "If you don't dress up you'll be breaking the laws of Halloween."

Now it was Eric's turn to frown as he brought up his own point, "Mom, I haven't dressed up for like…the past six years."

The point made by Eric had been much more valid than Kitty's and the look on Kitty's face showed that even she knew this; however, she wasn't giving up just yet.

"I know, I know. But…well I guess I hoping that all of that had just one of those phases you were going through and this year it would be over and done with." she confessed in a nervous tone of voice.

While Eric did feel bad, his mind couldn't be changed, still he offered a sincere "Sorry."

Kitty gave a small smile before turning to her adopted son, "Steven, you'll dress up for Halloween won't you?"

"Sure." The curly haired rebel nodded.

Hyde's response received two reactions, each very different from the other. Kitty's small smile more than tripled with excitement while Eric's eyes became large, despite the small scowl now on his forehead, as he became more than a little surprised with a hint of twitchiness.

"What?!" Eric practically shouted but Hyde merely smirked.

"Oh yay!" Kitty clapped her hands happily, "What're you dressing up as this year, Steven?"

There was a slight shrug then Hyde answered, "Thought I'd go as a road crew member of Zeppelin."

When Eric heard Hyde's costume plans he now understood why he'd said he would dress up and he couldn't contain his smile from breaking onto his face. Luckily Kitty didn't notice, she wasn't quite sure what a costume of a road crew member of a Zeppelin wore but she finally had one of her kids dressing up for the holiday again—she was not going to discourage anything.

"Oo fancy!" she said with interest and then giggled again, "So what do I need to get to put your costume together?"

"Don't need anything, Mrs. Forman. I've already got it all. Jeans and a black t-shirt."

Kitty frowned, "Well that just sounds like regular everyday clothes."

"I know." Hyde nodded and Eric did the same with a smirk on his face too.

Hearing and seeing this response made Kitty's shoulder's slump a bit. She was really hoping that Steven's costume would be more exciting and give her a chance to dust off her sewing machine. She really did miss making the kids' Halloween costumes. They had been so much fun to make and not just for her but the kid's too, maybe they'd just forgotten that.

"You know I bet the reason why you two don't want to dress up for Halloween is because you can't figure out what to be." she concluded turning on a positive, happy smile once again, "But I'm sure if we put out heads together we can figure something out!"

Eric and Hyde looked at each other, exchanging glances and silently arguing over who needed to step in and stop this. Before a winner—or in this case a loser—could be determined Kitty was already on a roll.

"Oh! You two could do one of those couple costumes!" Kitty threw at them, her voice and waving hands showing her excitement, "Like…I know! Steven you could dress up like a star and Eric you could be a fish, and when you put the two of you together you'd be…a starfish!" she ended her idea with a Kitty Forman laugh.

While Eric appeared mortified by the mere idea that his mother had pitched at them, Hyde seemed to have found some amusement in it.

"You'd be a fish." He said smirking at his childhood friend.

Not in much of a mood for Hyde's smirky-ness or to hear more couple costume ideas that his mom could come up with for him and Hyde (she'd already made him a fish in the first one, it would only get worse from there) he decided to put an end to it…or at least a pause.

"Um Mom, you think we can finish this talk later?" Eric suggested and left his hand up to point out the side door with his thumb, "We were gonna go catch a movie with Donna and everyone."

"Oh." Kitty said, her chirpy tone clearly having fallen a few notches but she pushed her smile back on, "What movie are you seeing?"

"They're replaying _The Exorcist_." informed Hyde.

The expression on Eric's face told that he didn't seem to want his mother to know what movie there were going to see but Hyde had either not seen it or seen it and went on to tell Kitty anyway because of that very look. Meanwhile, Kitty had begun to frown a bit at hearing the movie title, it did sound awfully familiar to her.

"Isn't that a scary movie?" she asked, her voice showing her concern as she turned to her son, "Oh honey, are you sure you wanna see that movie after all those bad dreams you had when you saw that last horror movie?"

Eric wore a blank look on his face, not able to believe that his mother had said that in front of Hyde. It took him a few moments before he found his voice.

"Mom, I'll be fine." Eric tried to assure her and then turned to Hyde, "And I didn't have nightmare _when_ I saw that movie, I had them _after_."

After clearing that up Eric pushed open the glass sliding door and began to exit the kitchen with Hyde not too far behind.

Hyde smirked, "Yeah, cuz that makes it better."

"Bye boys, have fun." Kitty called after the two.

Now alone in her kitchen once again, Kitty decided she should get started on dinner for her and Red since it looked like the kids would be out for the rest of the night. That thought added to her sadness and as she stepped away from the box of Halloween decorations her heart was heavy as she thought about how this would be another Halloween where her costume making skills wouldn't be needed.

She was heading towards the stove and was only a few steps away when she suddenly felt a chill. It wasn't a normal kind of chill that one might get at random points of the day or when they walked into a cold room, this felt more like she had walked through the chill or the chill had walked through her.

Of course Kitty was puzzled by the feeling and even looked around the room but before she could give it any more thought the swinging door swung open.

"There's my pretty lady." Her husband greeted her with a grin and then placed a quick kiss on her head, however as he pulled away he saw the odd expression on Kitty's face and it made his smile turn upside down, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Kitty replied with a shake of her head, deciding to ignore that weird cold feeling and instead share the other thing she had on her mind, "I was just thinking about our kids and how much they're growing up."

Red's frown deepened, this time with confusion, "Our kids?"

Kitty rolled her eyes at his reply and began to speak to his back as he walked over to the fridge, "Yes, _our_ _kids,_ Red. They are becoming mature adults of the world."

"Our kids?" he repeated, sounding even more confused than before.

"Red, you know darn well that Eric and Steven have been growing up a lot these past few months." Kitty defended her children however, her defensive tone soon lost its edge and even cracked a tad as she went on, "Soon they'll be so grown up they'll have their own lives and their own houses and they won't need us anymore."

"Yeah." Red said with a smile on his face and a cold can of beer in his hands, but when he saw the glare his wife was sending him he realized they may not have been the reply she was looking for so he tried to save himself, "I was agreeing with you."

His argument did nothing though and Kitty shook her head, knowing that he would never understand a mother's sadness.

Because he could see that Kitty really was upset by this he walked towards her, but because his previous comments may have put him one foot in the dog house, he walked towards her slowly. "Kitty, we've know they were gonna grow up for years…hell, I've been counting down the days. What's brought all of this on now?"

"I don't know." she said, wiping the corner of her left eye to keep her unshed tear form falling, "I guess…well…Eric and Steven won't be dressing up for Halloween this year either.

It looked like Red was getting ready to say something but Kitty wasn't quite through.

"I know it might seem silly but, I miss making the kids their Halloween costumes." She shared with a tight smile, "I miss their excitement when they helped design them and when they were trying them on it was always so much. Dressing up is the funnest part of Halloween. Even you continued to dress up until the kids got a little older."

Red now understood his wife's sudden sadness much more and he also knew what he had to do.

He placed his still closed beer on the counter top, "I'll be back."

"Where're you going?" Kitty asked with a frown.

"Downstairs to tell those dumbasses how much they've upset their mother." Red explained already heading to the basement, "And if that doesn't get them up here, I'll stick my foot so far up their asses they'll using it as part of their costumes."

"That isn't exactly the kind of Halloween costume I had in mind, Red." She told him before adding, "And besides they're not in the basement."

This new piece of information caused Red to turn back around in the direction of his wife, a frown in place on his forehead.

"Where are they?"

"They went to go see a scary movie at the theater." explained Kitty.

"Oh jeeze." Red groaned in annoyance as he started to step closer to his wife again, "Instead of spending their money on something important they're off spending it on some cheesy horror movie with fake blood and bad acting. You were worrying for nothing Kitty, they're gonna be living with us forever."

The grumbling made Kitty shake her head a bit, "Oh Red, they can still have fun. They like those kinds of movies for whatever reason." Her slight frown began to form on her forehead, "It must be a boy thing. Even you were a fan of those movies."

"What're you talking about?" Red asked with his own scowl.

"Don't you remember? When we were dating anytime there was a new horror movie out we were there to see it. You loved those cheesy scary movies."

"Yeah well the truth is," he cleared his throat, "it wasn't exactly the cheesy horror movies I loved. It was the comforting you during those cheesy horror movies part that I loved."

Kitty looked appalled at this revelation, "Red Forman, do you mean to tell me that you intentionally took me to movies that you knew I would be scared of just so you could comfort me?"

Red looked at her and smirked an uncertain kind of smirk—mostly because he wasn't sure of how she really felt about his confession; however when he caught the smile playing on her lips he knew that he was in the clear.

"That is so sweet." she said and then reached up to bring him down for a kiss.

Their lips soon touched and while Kitty had planned on giving her husband a simple quick peck on the lips Red had other plans and deepened the kiss by wrapping his arms around her causing her to move her own around his neck. It was a few moments before they managed to end their kiss but remained in each other's arms, looking at each other lovingly.

"What do you say I check the paper and see when the next horror movie starts?" Red asked mischievously.

"_Or_…We have the whole house to ourselves." Kitty reminded, feeling playful herself, "We could look for a horror movie on TV and you could comfort me on the couch."

His eyebrows rose up with interest, "Better."

Kitty laughed at her husband's response to her suggestion and then made another one, "How about you go look for a movie and I'll get started on dinner."

To show his agreement on the idea Red sealed their deal by giving Kitty another kiss, this time much quicker than the last, before exiting the kitchen through the same way he'd come through.

Once Red was gone, Kitty went to work on figuring out what to make for dinner. Since they were making plans for the rest of their evening, dinner would have to be something quick and easy to make but also be a filling meal as well. She headed over to the refrigerator to see what ingredients she had to work with.

"Let's see…what should I make?" she asked herself as she opened the door and looked inside the ice box.

THUD!

Kitty hadn't been expecting an answer to the question she'd asked aloud and so when she heard the sudden noise she was more than a little startled—something that one could tell by the small jump she gave at the sound of the noise. She slowly turned around, towards the direction that the noise had come from. The noise had sounded like something had fallen and so Kitty kept her eyes to the ground in search of the fallen item.

She soon found the fallen item, her white recipe box with the orange and yellow flowers painted on it.

With her eyes still fixated on the box, Kitty frowned at the object a she made her way towards it. She had been expecting several recipe cards to have fallen out but to her surprise there was only one card that appeared to have slipped out of the box despite fact that the box was shut closed.

Once she was close enough she bent down and picked up the box and then the recipe card, flipping it over to see which one it was.

"_Bernice's Prize Winning Beef Stew_." Kitty read off the piece of paper; she couldn't remember being given this recipe but continued to read on with interest, she scoffed a bit as she got to the directions part, "I wonder if it has to be cooked in a witch's cauldron too."

Not a second after Kitty's remark was said a chef's knife—that had once been laying on top of the counter—fell into the sink with a loud clanking noise. Kitty startled with a small jump and did what she knew would help her feel safe again.

"Red!"

Right away Red rushed through the door and into the kitchen. The tone of his wife's voice she had used to call out his name had alarmed him more than a little bit and so he hadn't expecting to find her standing in the middle of the kitchen looking perfectly fine the way she was now. Still he was sure there was an explanation for her cry and was relieved it wasn't because of any kind of injury.

"Kitty, what's wrong?" he asked.

"The knife." She said able to calm her fast heart rate but the same couldn't exactly be said for her uneasy nerves, "The knife fell."

Red frowned and walked towards her, "Did you cut yourself?"

"No. No, the knife fell into the sink there." Kitty explained pointing towards the sink but Red's scowl remained in place—if anything it deepened—so she went on, "Red, I don't ever remember using a knife today, why would I have left the chef's knife by the sink."

"Kitty, you probably just forgot that you used the knife earlier." He tried to reason.

Now it was Kitty who was frowning, "Are you calling me old by saying I forget things?"

"No." Red was quick to argue, "I'm just saying you do so much during that day that maybe a simple thing like using a knife slipped your mind. You probably left it too close to the edge of the sink and it finally fell in right now."

"Okay, fine." Kitty agreed though her tone sounded more like she was ready to make a challenge than leave the topic alone, "Then Mr. Answer Man, how do you explain this?"

She then lifted the recipe box right up to Red's face. Kitty's facial expression showed her determination while Red's showed his clear confusion. He wasn't quite sure what she wanted him to explain. His eyes moved from the box to Kitty and then back again, but Kitty didn't say a word, leaving Red on his own.

"It's your recipe box?" he said sounding like he was asking a question.

"Exactly _my_ recipe box. With _my_ recipes inside." She agreed with a nod, but the firm look on her face never faded, "But when it fell just before the knife did only one recipe fell out. This recipe."

She then replaced the recipe box with the mysterious recipe card in the spot in front of Red's face. This time Red had to grab a hold of Kitty's hand and pull the paper back to understand what the writing said. When he did read the title on the card a small smile began to make his way onto his face as he took the recipe between his own fingers.

"Hey, this is Ma's beef stew recipe. When I was kid I used to love whenever she made this." Red shared suddenly feeling a bit nostalgic.

Hearing this Kitty felt a bit of relief and giggled nervously as she realized she may have been overreacting a tad, "So then you put the recipe in there?"

"No, I didn't." he replied still looking at the card, "I didn't even know she had it written down."

Kitty's blood ran cold at that statement and that queasy uneasy feeling from before washed over her once again—maybe she hadn't been overreacting at all. When he at last looked away from the recipe card Red took notice of the worried look on Kitty's now pale face and his own face soon scrunched with concern,

"Kitty, what's wrong?"

"Something…something strange is going on here, Red." She told him in a shaky voice as her eyes looked around the room in fear.

Red still didn't understand, "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" Kitty started to explain before giving a sigh as she realized she was going to have to start from the beginning, "Before you walked in I felt a cold chill pass through me. And then right after you left my recipe box fell all on its own and the only recipe that fell out was your mother's recipe, one that I don't even remember her ever giving me."

"And then when I went to pick up the recipe I…I may have said something not so nice about your mother." She tried to rush through that part, wringing her hands nervously as she did so, "And at that same moment the knife, _that I did not place anywhere near the sink_, feel into the sink!"

By the time Kitty had finished her explanation her tone of voice sounded more than a little nervous and she continued to twist her hands anxiously while staring up at her frowning husband, waiting for his take on all of this.

At last he spoke.

"Huh." Red said with a slight frown.

"Huh?" Kitty repeated in surprise, shaking her head a bit, "That's all you have to say? _Huh_?"

Red's frown stayed in place, "Well what do you want me to say, Kitty?"

"Well for starters I would like to hear something along the lines of 'Kitty, you're not going insane!" she told him, now sounding on the verge of tears.

"Kitty," he called her name softly before pulling his wife into her arms where she buried her face into his chest, "you're not going insane."

"You're just saying that." came her muffed reply.

"No, I'm not. Look Kitty," Red then slowly pulled her off of him so that he could look her in the eyes as he started his own explanation, "Everything You just told me about has a perfectly reasonable explanation behind it. Things fall. You probably had the knife and recipe box too close to the edge of the sink and the counter. And the recipe was probably something you found when we were cleaning out Ma's house after the funeral."

She didn't appear very convinced especially since he hadn't explained one of the incidents, "What about the chill I felt?"

"You've had hot flashes, maybe this was a cold flash?" he suggested.

"That's not it Red…" Kitty protested

Red tired to stop her before she could go on, "Kitty…"

Before either of the two could say more in their argument the thunderous sound of a door slamming shut could be heard loud and clear. Immediately Kitty closed the gap between her and Red by rushing into her previous spot in front of him, head against his chest. Red, meanwhile, had obviously heard the noise as well but didn't seem at all startled by it, in fact he just looked upset. Whichever dumbass slammed that damn door was going to have to deal with him, not just for slamming a door but for scaring his wife all over again.

"What…what was that?" Kitty asked, her fist tightly holding the material of Red's shirt.

"It was the backdoor." Red explained, referring to the door between the kitchen and dining room that led out to the back yard, "It was probably one of the kids."

Again Kitty rapidly shook her head, "No, Red. I told you, Eric and Steven went to the movies with the others. They're not home."

"So it just means either the dumbasses forgot something or they forgot a dumbass." Red rationalized and then came up with an idea that might be able to help calm his wife, "I'll go check it out for you, alright?"

He once again proceeded to slowly pull Kitty off of him and began to head over to the door.

"Eric?!"

"No Red!" Kitty exclaimed before hurrying towards Red and clinging onto him again, "Don't leave me alone in here."

Red's frown deepened as his full attention was moved from the slamming of the backdoor to his frightened wife. He definitely did not like seeing his wife in this state but despite his attempts to calm her down she only seemed to become more panicked and nervous. Maybe their plans for the night needed some editing.

"Alright, Kitty how about we take a rain check on tonight's horror movie?" he suggested, managing to pull her off of him but keep an arm around her shoulder ready to lead her into the living room, "I'm sure we can find something else to watch to help you relax and keep your mind off all of…this."

Kitty looked up at her husband, allowing him to move her towards the living room until a thought entered her mind and she stopped her feet from taking another step.

"What about dinner?" she asked with a great deal of concern but before Red could offer an idea, Kitty had come up with her own, "I could make us a few sandwiches to hold us over for a while."

"Fine." He agreed with a nod, knowing now would not be the best time to fight with his wife.

Just as Kitty started to very slowly and carefully gather the ingredients she needed to make two quick sandwiches, she caught from the corner of her eye, the sight of Red heading for the living room. Kitty did not want to be left alone again, but at the same time she thought that begging Red to stay in the kitchen with her would either make her appear pathetic or insane. Neither sounded appealing. Maybe if she could just keep him in the room without asking him to actually stay in there with her while she finished their sandwiches would work.

"Um Red honey, could you lock the side door here? Please?" she asked sweetly; the task would not only keep him in the room tad bit longer but also put her mind a tad bit at ease as well.

"Kitty, none of the kids have a ke…" Red stopped his argument mid sentence when he suddenly realized it was more of a positive thing than a negative; a smirk soon stretched onto his lips, "Sure thing, sweetheart."

While Red went to lock the door Kitty got ready to make their small dinner. She had all her ingredients but first needed to rinse her hands. She headed over to the sink but before she had the water running she looked down and the sight she saw made her heart jump to her throat.

The knife was gone.

Very slowly and somewhat shakily Kitty looked up and to the side. Her eyes instantly feel on the knife block where sure enough, the missing chef's knife was back in its rightful space.

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_**Author's Note: **__So what did you think? Spooky? Not so spooky? Worth continuing? Let me know in a review!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, and have a nice day! _


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hi everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well and have had a good week. Getting ready fro Halloween yet? It's nearly here! Today I have for you the second chapter of "Things That Go Bump" I am very sorry for taking awhile to get it posted. I actually was waiting to see if some readers were going to have the chance to read it and during that time I got hit with not writer's block but writer's blues and I think that's even worse than writer's block..okay maybe not really lol But the good news is I think it's gone and I'll be back to writing new stuff soon. Of course first and foremost is this story! Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and support! It truly means so much. Like I said before, some of the stuff is new to me to write but I'm glad that for the most part you readers enjoyed it. Couple of things about this chapter, first off I apologize if there is some OOCness at the end with Red and Kitty—blame it on the writer's blues. When I reread the scene I started to not see Red but another TV character, the good news is that he's kinda reminded me of Red so hopefully things will work out. Also you may notice a part in the story that is formatted much like Marla's Lost writing, it happened unintentionally and I still think it's because she had been the one to give me the idea in the first place! Thanks again for everything Marla! And Thank you all once again for stopping by to read, I hope you all enjoy this next chapter, please do review if you can, I'd love to hear your thoughts, I hope you like, and as always, please, Enjoy!_

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"And then when I went to go wash my hands in the sink the knife was gone." Kitty retold the events of the previous night to her children as the four of them sat at the round kitchen table eating their breakfast.

While his sister and adopted brother seemed a bit interested in what their mother was saying, Eric appeared to be the most concerned of the three, "Wait…so the knife just disappeared? It's still missing now?"

"Well no." Kitty shook her head, "When I looked up I found it was back with the other knives in the knife block over there."

"You should've had the knife disappear completely." commented a bored looking Laurie as she swirled her spoon around in her bowl of breakfast, "Would've made a scarier ending."

Hyde couldn't help but agree with the blonde and he nodded his head but made sure not to make Kitty feel bad, "It was still a pretty good story though."

"It wasn't _a story_. It's what happened _last night_!" argued Kitty who was feeling quite frustrated by the fact that after telling her whole story—and even informing them that they had been true events at the very beginning—her kids still thought she was making up a spooky Halloween story for them.

Laurie's interest suddenly perked up again and she made a helpful suggestion, "That's good, Mom but you should say it was a dark and stormy night. It'll make the beginning _way_ better."

"Yeah, if you wanna take the cliché route." came Hyde's remark.

"You would know, cliché boy." Laurie threw back at him, her excited smile now replaced with a snarl aimed at the curly haired teen beside her, "The orphaned bad boy together with the goody two shoes princess, could you get any cornier?"

Keeping Zen, Hyde never missed a beat as he replied to the question with one of his own, "Don't know. Could you get any whorier?"

A deeper snarl was delivered towards Hyde by Laurie before the two of them went off throwing insulting zingers at the other. Kitty did not feel like playing referee today, and they were exchanging barbs in a civilized manner, so she tuned out the squabbling pair and focused her attention to her son on her left.

"Eric, honey, what do you think?" she asked him.

She was hoping someone would believe that what she saw could have been real and she knew the best chance she had at finding that someone would be in her baby boy.

"I don't know, Mom." Eric said, his tone sounding unsure, "I mean I don't really have a problem with the beginning of the story. I do think that you should've had the knife missing for good though."

With that said, Eric looked over at Hyde and Laurie who were still in the middle of exchanging wits and so he decided to join in. On Hyde's team, of course. Meanwhile, since she didn't get the response she was hoping for, Kitty slumped her shoulders with disappointment and moved her fingertips to the side of her head where a headache caused by frustration was beginning to form; all the while her children continued to quarrel next to her.

This was the exact scene that welcomed Red into the kitchen, causing him to feel for his wife right away.

"Kids, stop bothering your mother." He gruffly ordered the three of them as he approached his seat at the table.

Laurie was the first one to speak, in her innocent little voice, "We weren't bothering Mommy, Daddy."

"Yeah, she was telling us the story of The Things That Happened Last Night." Hyde informed, giving the 'story' a working title.

"Last night?" Red scowled at his wife across the table, "Kitty, I thought we agreed nothing happened last night."

Before Kitty could reply, Eric picked up on his father's tone, it instantly alerted him that things were not good…they might even be more serious than he thought they were.

"Wait, so all those things that Mom was talking about…all those things _actually_ _happened_?" Eric asked, not being able to hide the worry on his face.

"No."

"Yes!"

Husband and wife seemed to have two very different answers and it only made their children more confused and even a bit concerned. Red could sense this and he knew he had to put a stop to it before he had all four of them climbing the walls.

"Look, nothing happened last night." He said in a firm sounding voice, "It was all in your mother's head."

The words slipped out before Red could stop them and once they had been said even Eric realized they had been a poor choice of things to say.

"Oh, Dad…" Eric said while the other two remained mute, "_No_!"

Kitty blinked her eyes rapidly as if still processing what she'd heard, "All in my head, Red? Is that it? So I just imagined chills, and things falling, and a door slamming. A door _you_ heard slamming _too_! Or maybe I imagined that too since it's all in my head!"

Red's eyes closed for a bit, "Kitty, that's not what I meant." He tried to explain, "I just meant that it was your mind that came up with those scarier reason for why those things happened instead of coming up with more logical ones like I did."

"Okay, fine. Let's just see how logical your reasons are." She said lowering her palms that she had opened seconds ago; she then looked at her boys, having to look from one side to the other, "Eric, Steven, did you or any of your friends come back into the house after the two of you left to the movies?"

The two young men took some time to think it over before shaking their heads.

"We all took off in the Cruiser not too long after we talked to you, Mrs. Forman." Hyde added though he wasn't quite sure what this had to do with anything.

A satisfied look started to make its way to Kitty's face but she wasn't quite through yet, "And what time did you boys get home at?"

"Well that depends of what you mean by 'get home.'" Eric began to say, "If you mean 'get home' as in get here _in_ _front_ of the house then I'd say ten thirty. Now if you meant 'get home' as in get _inside_ our home then I'd say not until this morning when you unlocked the screen door and found me and Hyde sleeping on the patio chairs since you know, the door was locked."

Eric's words hadn't been direct at his mother but at Red. He believed it was Red that had locked the doors, whether on purpose or accidently was still up for debate but he was hoping he could get some sympathy. Unfortunately, the only thing Eric got was a look from his father that seemed to say 'talk to me when you have to sleep out in the cold on foreign ground with bullets flying over your head. The Korea Card really could win any argument.

"You see Red, it wasn't the boys who slammed the door." said Kitty.

"They're not the only ones that live here, Kitty." he turned his head to his daughter, "Laurie?"

"It wasn't me, Daddy. I spent the night over at Louie's." Laurie answered but quickly caught her slip up and attempted to cover it up, "Louise's. Louise. You remember her, she went to school with me."

"Right." Red nodded, not able to give her words much more thought when he saw the triumph way Kitty was looking at him, "Fine, it wasn't the kids. But it still could have been the wind or…"

Kitty crossed her arms over her chest, "Red Forman, why can't you just admit that something strange could be going on in this house?"

"Kitty, even if I did agree with you, what could that something strange be?" he asked using a tone of voice that clearly showed he was not going to be agreeing anytime soon.

"Well it could be…" Kitty nervously stuttered, if her family was already having trouble believing her story they were going to have a field day with what she had to say next—but she wasn't going to let that stop her, "It could be a ghost haunting the house."

"A ghost?" Red repeated with a frown, "A ghost of what, Kitty?"

This time Kitty didn't hesitate to give this answer, "Your mother."

Silence fell on those in the kitchen and while Kitty remained firm on the idea of the ghost of Red's mother being behind all of those incidents the night before her family didn't look all too convinced. There were four frowns on four faces but only one was looking at Kitty while the other three seemed to be exchanged between the three and soon those three frowns started to fade as they realized their mother could actually be onto something.

"Grandma Forman?" Eric asked, sounding frightened as he recalled his last words to his late grandmother.

Laurie looked from her mother to her father, "It was Grandma's recipe that fell out."

"She never liked Mrs. Forman either, Red." Hyde reminded, somewhat explaining the appearance and then disappearance of the chef's knife.

"Ooo wee ooo ooo!" Eric began to sing a wordless—and almost tuneless—creepy song.

Of course he was freaked out at the thought that his dead grandmother could be haunting his house, but seeing Hyde and Laurie shaken up too, it was too good of a chance to pass up! He only hoped he didn't scare his mother or upset his grandmother's haunting spirit.

"Shut it." Red barked the order telling Eric that even if he didn't anger his grandmother's ghost he'd definitely angered his father which may have been even worse.

Swiftly Eric stopped his noise making and dropped his eyes to the table to avoid his father's gaze. Once Red saw that that situation was taken care of, he looked back at his wife, ready to put an end this whole 'ghost situation' of Kitty's.

"My mother is not haunting our house, Kitty. There is no ghost." He declared to not just his wife but his kids who he knew were still listening, "The only thing haunting this house is the dumbasses that roam around in our basement night and day."

"And that's our cue to leave." Eric said standing up from his seat.

Hyde nodded in agreement as he stood up as well, "Don't go do any ghost hunting alone, Mrs. Forman."

"Yeah Mom, and try to keep Laurie with you at all times." Eric began to advise, "Her evilness will scare off any other evil spirits. It's actually the one time having a daughter who's scarier than the devil comes in handy."

Laurie squinted her eyes in a snarl at her brother as he followed Hyde out the glass side door; she figured she wouldn't have enough time to deliver a comeback so instead she ripped off a piece of Hyde's left over toast and threw it at the back of Eric's head. The scrap then bounced off Eric's head and onto the floor just in time for Schatzi to find it when he entered the kitchen from the same door the boys were exiting through.

As soon as the boys were gone Red and Laurie went back to eating their breakfast while Kitty got up from her seat and wordlessly picked up the dishes left behind by her son's. It felt like things were normal again and Red thought the whole topic from before was over and done with.

He was wrong.

"I cannot believe you did that, Red Forman." Kitty said sounding upset as she dropped the plates into the sink with a loud _clank!_

Red didn't understand, "Did what?"

At that same moment Schatzi abruptly began to bark loudly and quite aggressively, however Kitty was too upset with her husband to pay the barking any attention.

"Instead of supporting or at least _pretending_ to support me you made me sound like a crazy woman in front of our children!"

"I did not." Red argued over Schatzi's high pitched barks, "If anything I tried to make you seem less crazy."

Kitty's eyes became large and she placed her hand son her hips, "Excuse me?"

"Crap." He mumbled before standing up and beginning his correction, "Kitty, I…" that was all Red managed to say because it was as far as he got in his head thanks to the dachshund's constant barking, "Laurie, what the hell is the damn dog barking at?"

Laurie looked over her shoulder and at the yapping dog. His attention and growls seemed to be focused on something in front of him so Laurie looked in the direction that Schatzi was barking at but only saw the shut glass sliding door.

"Don't know." she answered with a shrug dismissing the dog and getting back to her breakfast, "There's nothing there."

Before Red could mutter any kind of line along the words of 'damn dog' Kitty's anger toward him was quickly forgotten and worry showed on her face as she checked for herself that there was nothing there for Schatzi to be barking at. There wasn't.

"Or there's nothing we can see." Kitty said, her tone of voice sounding much like it did last night; seeing the frowns coming from her husband and daughter she continued on, "Sometimes dogs can see things that humans can't. Like ghosts or spirits or…"

Just then the glass door slid open and Michael Kelso walked into the house with a large grin painted on his face.

"Sorry, I'm late everyone. Hey there, Schatzi." He bent down to pet the little brown dog but he only backed away and barked some more; Kelso shrugged it off before taking a seat in Hyde's usual seat, "So what's for breakfast?"

Red scowled at the kettlehead now seated at his table but instead of giving him any kind of greeting he turned to his wife and finished the statement she had been cut off from, "Or a dumbass coming a mile away."

With that said Red exited the room while both Kitty and Laurie watched him leave—one looking more concerned than the other—and Kelso just looked confused as he searched the table trying to find the plate of bacon.

0o0o0o

Kitty walked into her husband's den relieved to find that the room was empty. As much as she loved her family and her son's friends she really needed a few quite moments to herself and even though her kitchen provided such moments after the odd occurrences of last night she no longer felt safe in one of her favorite rooms of the house.

She slowly sat herself down in the large armchair and moved her hand up to cover the right side of her face. She didn't know what was going on with her. Sure she knew menopause would not be the easiest stage of her life and she knew all about the signs and things to expect during 'the change' but thinking that your mother-in-law was back from the dead and haunting your house was definitely not one she had ever heard of before.

However, Kitty knew she couldn't blame this all on her menopause—like she was sure the rest of her family had already done. She also couldn't just agree with the reasonable explanations that Red had come up with for the things that happened last night and this morning with Schatzi's barking. Red had said Schatzi was glowing at Kelso but Kitty didn't believe that either. All of the neighborhood dogs loved Michael—Schatzi included. Something was going on in her house she was sure of it…Wasn't she?

Removing her hand from her face Kitty let out a small sigh. Maybe Red was right and she needed to relax, even after Red had led her out of the kitchen last night she wasn't able to relax all that much and had a sleepless night when it was time for bed. She scooted back into the chair, ready to give this relaxing idea another shot but before she could even begin to try to relax an item on the end table beside the chair caught her eye.

The family picture album.

What was that doing out? She wondered. No one ever looked trough it unless they were being forced to. And they would have put it back on the shelf in the den not left it out in the open. Why was it still out here? Kitty suddenly stopped the questions running through her mind when she realized she had been the last one to look through the album.

It had been a few days ago when she was looking for baby pictures of her boys for a page in their year book that would include their baby pictures beside their senior pictures. Of course she'd thought it had been an adorable idea and went to work in looking for the right photo. She had many to choose from for Eric and Steven had given her the few baby pictures he'd brought with him from his parent's house. Kitty wasn't sure if he'd given them to her for safe keeping or so that she could include his baby pictures with Eric and Laurie's but either way Kitty had gladly placed them into the family photo album.

With the happy thoughts of her babies as babies Kitty grabbed the picture book and opened it to one of the first pages that consisted of pictures from her and Red's courtship. She smiled at the images of the younger versions of herself and Red along with the familiar faces of friends she hadn't seen in years.

Keeping her smile in place Kitty settled back into the chair and continued to look through the book hoping the old memories would keep her mind off the spooky events going on in her home.

Meanwhile in the living room Red sat in his usual green armchair frowning at the TV screen that played a rerun of _Bewitched_. Today though, Red's scowl was not solely directed at the dumbass that was Darrin Number Two; his mind was still on Kitty and her whole idea of a ghost haunting the house. And not just any ghost, the ghost of his mother!

He knew the two of them never got along and for years they drove him crazy by putting him into middle of things, which was where he was now; trying to convince his wife that his deceased mother was not haunting them. The whole thing was ridiculous!

Still Red couldn't help but feel a little guilty at the way he'd reacted to the things Kitty had said. He wasn't one who believed in things like ghosts but he could have been a bit more sensitive to her feelings. He knew Kitty had been going through a lot lately; the long hours at the hospital, coming home to him and their seven kids—most of which were graduating this year giving her something else to deal with—along with the menopause that was difficult on the whole family.

Maybe it wasn't her fault that she was thinking there could be a ghost in their house, she could just be overworked and overly tired that her imagination had gotten the best of her. Kitty had always had an overactive imagination, when the kids were younger the bedtime stories she told usually came from the top of her head and the Halloween costumes she now missed making were done pattern-free; it wouldn't be too hard to believe that her imagination would come up with the idea that her mother-in-law's spirit was in her house.

The question was how could it be put to a stop?

Some rest could help, but Red had had a hard enough time getting her to relax last night. Maybe he needed to get her out of the house; it would at least keep her mind off things for a few hours. And even though it was the middle of the week, Red decided the sooner the better; after all he only had a few days before all the stores and restaurants would start hanging up their Christmas decorations while playing Christmas carols all day, every day.

Back in the den Kitty had come to the part in the scrapbook that held photographs from her and Red's wedding. Her eyes were stuck on the image of her husband in the picture of the two of them on the dance floor. He really did look so handsome in his tuxedo, maybe Kitty needed to find some new events that would get him in one again.

At last moving her gaze away from her groom, Kitty quickly scanned over the other pictures on the two pages of the opened book and realized that these pictures were not just of her and Red; they included cameos of their family members, including Mother Forman.

Knowing that she probably couldn't handle seeing the image of her mother-in-law—even if it was only in a photograph—Kitty decided to skip over the rest of the wedding section of the album. She grabbed a few pages of the scrapbook and turned them over to flip to a random page that she hoped would include images from when Laurie and Eric were little. However, as Kitty moved the stack of pages to the left side of the scrapbook a picture managed to come loose and slipped out of the book and straight onto Kitty's lap, facing right side up.

Kitty looked down at her lap and saw the picture. It was one from the wedding, she and Red were standing with members of Red's family and her eyes landed right on Bernice Forman's smiling face.

With a frightened scream, Kitty leapt up off her seat causing the album and picture to fall to the floor. Red had entered the room almost at the same time, calling his wife's name but she didn't answer him, though seemed to know he was there as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped into his arms, catching Red by such a surprise that he almost forward.

Once he regained his balance he looked at his wife whose face was buried into his neck that she was still holding onto tightly, "Kitty, what happened?"

She pulled away and looked at him, not sure of what to say. She wanted to tell him the truth but didn't want her family thinking she was crazier than they already thought she was.

"I…I saw a mouse." She lied.

The scowl on Red's forehead deepened as he looked towards the area near the chair and noticed the album and faced down photo on the floor. Still holding Kitty in his arms, he walked towards the items and placed Kitty on the arm of the chair before retrieving the photo. Turing it over, he saw what it was a picture of he looked back at his wife.

He still wore his frown, "What's the picture doing out here?"

"The mouse brought it out." Kitty answered weakly and the expression on Red's face told her he had not been fooled; she shook her head, "Well it's not like you would believe me if I told you the truth anyways."

Red knew he deserved that but hopefully he'd be able to make it up to her with his next move. He placed the photo on the small table, noticing Kitty scooted farther away from it but said nothing about it.

"Look Kitty," he began to say, "I know you're upset because I haven't been taking you seriously about…the recent events, but I've thought it over and…"

"And you believe me now?" Kitty interrupted in a hopeful tone.

"No." came Red's blunt reply, "I still think it's your imagination behind all this." He added and when he saw Kitty getting ready to protest he continued on, "And I know you don't. So I've figured out a way to settle this."

Kitty looked a bit suspicious, "How?"

"I'm taking you out tonight." He said with a grin, "We'll go to dinner, a movie, whatever you want to do."

"Red, what is going out to dinner going to prove?" Kitty asked, convinced that he must have had another motive for this.

"Nothing, we'll have to wait till we get back home." came his answer before he started to elaborate more on his plan, "See us going to dinner will get you out of the house and help you relax and keep your mind of things. Then when we get back home if you still feeling like there's a ghost in the house then I'll believe you. If you don't then I was right and it was all in your head."

The look Kitty wore on her face showed how indifferent she felt about the idea.

Noticing the expression Red walked over and placed his arm around her shoulders, "And in the meantime you get a nice night out on the town and I get to spend some time with my best girl."

When she felt Red squeeze her a bit tighter Kitty gazed up at him with a tight smile, "Well okay." She said pretending like she had to give in, which made her laugh a bit.

"Great." he said and then helped Kitty onto her feet, "You go get dressed and I'll let the dumbasses know they're on their own for dinner."

He gave her bottom a quick pat and then headed out of the room; when he noticed the lack of footsteps behind him he stopped and turned back around to find Kitty standing in the same spot as before, her smile still playing on her lips.

"What's wrong?" he asked, confused and thinking maybe she'd changed her mind.

"You know," Kitty started to say, tilting her head slightly as she walked towards where he stood, "Even though you didn't and _still_ _don't_ believe me on all of this. You really are a wonderful husband, Red Forman."

A smirk crawled onto Red's lips, "I think a wonderful wife deserves that kind of husband, right?"

To show her agreement with the statement, Kitty grinned before raising herself on her tiptoes to give her husband a well earned kiss. Their lips hadn't been touching for more than two seconds before a loud boom of thunder shook the house and caused a swift end to the couple's embrace as a startled Kitty clutched onto Red's shirt.

Red sighed before he began running a soothing hand over her back, "I'll go with you upstairs."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__So what did you think? Yay? Nay? A little bit of both? Be sure to let me know in a review!_

_I know this chapter was kinda RK focused but the next chapter will have more of the kids after all they're in the house alone now. _

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, and have a nice day!_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well! Everyoen have a nice Halloween? Hope so! Hope you had fun in your costumes and got some good candy or got to watch some good scary movies with candy. Candy plays a big part of the holiday :D lol I'm very sorry that I didn't get to post this chapter yesterday. Real life stuff came up the day before Halloween which caused me to get off schedule and Halloween was one of my long days at school got home and trick-or-treaters were waiting for their candy. Hopefully you all don't mind the chapter being a day late. I'm pretty sure there's just one more chapter to go. This one is a tad bit shorter only because if I added another scene it would be extra long, plus I kinda like the ending. Hope you all do too. Thanks again for all of your amazing support! It truly means so much that you all are enjoying the story so much. Once again, BIG THANK YOU to Marla's Lost who provided the whole story idea plus some of the spooky stuff. Thanks Marla! Thanks to all of you as well for stopping by to read, please review if you can, I'd love to hear you thoughts, I hope you like it, and as always, please, Enjoy!_

* * *

In a bedroom with posters covering its blue walls, Eric Forman was glaring down at the shut math book that lay on top of the desk that he sat in front of. He had been sitting there for almost a full half hour; he'd first done so to get started on his homework assignment but not five minutes in his mind began to think various thoughts about homework and how the person who had invented the idea of it was either more evil than Darth Vader and Green Goblin combined or someone who had absolutely nothing to do at home and had no idea how to waste that time properly.

Finally, he gave in and figured that the sooner he started the sooner he finished…or at least could take a break. A snack break…or a circle break…maybe a combination of both…Eric shook his head to keep his thoughts from wandering in the clouds and stick to the math homework he needed to finish. It was only five problems, it wouldn't take that long, he was probably making this a bigger deal than it really was.

Eric took hold of one side of the textbook to open up the book and then flipped through the pages till he got to page 107. Reaching that page he soon found the five math problem he was assigned and the five different parts that went with each question.

His face wrinkled into one that looked to be of pain before he let out a loud groan as he dropped his head down onto the opened book.

'_Eric.'_

The sound of his name being whispered caused Eric's posture to quickly straighten up, his head practically popping off of the book—a small frown indented onto it. The voice was soft and sounded feminine and so his mind went to one conclusion.

"Donna?" he called, pushing out his chair and standing up to walk towards his window.

When he reached the window, Eric pulled back his curtain and expected to find Donna's smiling face waiting for him to open the window so she could come inside but all he found was the sight of his empty backyard. He furrowed his brows together, if it wasn't Donna who else would be whispering his name in such a soft woman-like voice?

Suddenly his mind flashback to breakfast this morning and his mom's ghost story. A chill ran up his spine and he almost squeaked out a terrified 'Grandma?' but another detail from breakfast calmed his nerves instantly and even made him smile a little.

"Oh! Okay, good one Laurie!" he called out; Laurie had been sitting at breakfast and she was evil so really who wouldn't think she was trying to scare him now, "You almost had me going for a minute there, but you didn't so you can come on out now!"

He yanked open his closet door but the blonde troublemaker was nowhere in sight; Eric's scowl swiftly returned.

'_Eric.'_

This time the whisper of his name startled Eric even more causing him to jump up and quickly turn to face the other way—the direction he could have sworn he heard the whisper come from. His widened green eyes scanned over his room looking for a spot where he hoped he would find his older sister hiding in.

"Laurie?" he called to the empty room but received no response.

Then he crouched down to the floor to look under the bed, "Laurie?"

But there was no Laurie there either.

With shaky legs, Eric stood back up and gave a visible gulp. And though his appearance on the outside showed his fear, inside he was trying to stay calm and remind himself that this very well could just be his evil sister being evil.

Soon his eyes landed on the shut bedroom door and he realized Laurie didn't have to be in his room to scare him at all! Eric practically ran to the door and threw it open but only felt his stomach drop as he saw the emptiness of the hallway between his and his sister's room.

Laurie's shut door caught his attention and he hurried over to it, turning the knob and burst into the room without even a knock.

"Hey!" Laurie angrily shouted, "You'd think after walking in on Mom and Dad you would've learned to knock!"

Eric just stared at Laurie. She had been sitting at her vanity painting her nails when he entered the room, now she still sat there but her painting actions had been paused as she delivered a look of pure annoyance his way. Everything looked perfectly normal, just like he had been afraid of.

Noticing her brother's odd behavior and the terrified look in his eyes she let her head drop slightly to left, "Did you walk in on them _again_?"

He shook his head and finally managed to make out some words, "Laurie…Laurie, have you been in here this whole time?"

"Yeah." she replied wearing a frown, not understanding why he was asking her such a question.

Carefully Eric eyed her up and down. She looked relaxed and settled in, not like she had rushed into the room seconds ago and just set all of this up to make it look like she had been sitting here for several minutes. He looked at her nails three of them were painted ruby red and her index finger only had the tip painted so far.

"You're…you're really telling the truth aren't you?"

His sister's frown stayed in place, "_Yeah_. Why? What's going on?"

"Did you hear a woman calling out my name?" Eric asked, his voice full of urgency.

The blonde rolled her eyes, annoyed by the fact that her questions had been ignored, and went back to painting her nails as she replied, "No. And you never will. Unless you count Mom calling you to bring her your dirty laundry."

"Laurie!" Eric shouted in a such a serious and angry voice it not only grabbed Laurie's attention but it shocked her more than a little too; with big eyes she looked at her little brother and saw him take in a deep breath that seemed to calm him down since his tone had returned to normal when he spoke again. "Laurie, I think Mom was right."

She was still lost, "About what?"

"I think there's really something going on in the house." he confessed to her.

Laurie eyed him up and down, her scowl back on her face, "I think _you're_ _on_ _something_." She threw at her brother, "You're acting even weirder than Mom did this morning."

"Mom." Eric repeated as he realized that he had to find and tell his mother about what happened to him, "Laurie, where's Mom?"

By now Laurie's full attention was back on painting her nails and she never once looked up as she answered, "Don't know. Don't care. Get out."

"Okay." He agreed and without another word turned back around and left the room.

Still confused by her younger brother's stranger behavior Laurie watched him quickly exit the room and then shook her head and went back to her nail painting, "I knew dropping him on the head as a baby was gonna come back and haunt me."

0o0o0o

"Mommy?"

Hyde could hear his best friend calling out upstairs as he sat with his arms crossed over his chest in his regular seat in the basement watching TV. It hadn't been going on for too long and luckily it had started when his show had cut to commercial but now Eric's voice was getting louder and more and more clear which meant that it was only a matter of time before…

"Mommy?" Eric called out again while cautiously climbing down the basement stairs; when he caught the sight of Hyde in there he quickly cleared his throat and unbent his back out trying to act like nothing was wrong, "Oh hey, Hyde, hi. Have you um have you seen Mom?"

The curly haired young man smirked, "You mean your _Mommy_?"

"Well yeah, I guess you could call her that." Eric said with a nod of his head as he walked towards the seating area, "I kinda prefer 'Mom' or even 'Mother' but yeah 'Mommy' works too."

"Yeah, right." Hyde snorted in an unconvinced way.

Eric wanted to argue back but he didn't have time so he asked again, "So have you seen Mom?"

"Sorry man, haven't seen her or Red in awhile now." informed Hyde, his eyes back on the TV screen, "They probably went out somewhere."

Fear filled Eric once again as he heard that neither one of his parents had been seen. He was worried about his mother. And though he was sure his father could take care of himself he could also take care of the rest of them which was why Eric wanted him here too. Where would they have gone anyway? His father never liked leaving anywhere he didn't have to go and his mom was too scared to leave the house; plus they usually told them if they were going anywhere.

Another frightening thought entered Eric's mind.

"They went out?" Eric said again, this time making it a question, "Or were they _taken_ _out_?"

Hyde turned in his adopted brother's direction and looked at him as if he had two heads, "_What_?"

Knowing that Hyde wouldn't understand and he really didn't have time to explain everything, Eric shook his head back and forth, "I gotta go."

And with that he was climbing back up the basement stairs and into the kitchen where he continued to call out for his 'Mommy' leaving a confused Hyde still sitting alone in the basement.

This time Hyde was the one who was shaking his head at his friend's actions. Last night when they got out of the movie theater he'd seemed fine and unaffected by the scary movie they'd gone to see. Hyde had even slept not too far from him out on the back porch and there hadn't been any nightmares. But Eric's behavior now was saying something quite different about the way _The_ _Exorcist_ had affected him. The ghost story from Kitty this morning probably didn't help any either.

Before Hyde could give much more thought on the subject _ChiPs_ came back from its commercial break. The screen had just gone to a close up of Erik Estrada when suddenly the scene changed to one of a ballroom dancing couple.

Hyde frowned at the set, wondering how that had happened. It obviously wasn't part of the episode and no way would a network interrupt _CHiPs_ for some lame ballroom dancing breaking news. He pushed himself out of his seat and walked towards the TV checking to see if the channel had somehow changed. He turned the knob and just like that _CHiPs_ was back on!

It was weird. The TV had changed channels on its own, after all this set was one of the older ones that didn't come with a control, the only way to change the channel was the old fashioned way of getting up and using the knobs to switch to the next channel. But Hyde hadn't been anywhere near there and he was the only one in the room.

Figuring it was just a sort of glitch, Hyde sat back down in his seat and recrossed his arms over his chest. He sat there waiting for the channel to switch again but a few minutes passed and nothing happened, so he leaned back to get comfortable and two seconds later _The_ _Lawrence_ _Welk_ _Show_ had taken over _CHiPs_ again!

Again Hyde stood up and walked to the television set to change the channel back to his program. CHiPs played on the screen form now more than five seconds before the song and dance number reappeared once more. This time Hyde didn't even make it back to his seat and he stood there frowning down at the TV.

"What the…" he started to ask again, reaching over to turn the knob and changed the channel back.

_CHiPs_ was back on but not for very long; the channel swiftly switched back to _The_ _Lawrence_ _Welk_ Show and this time Hyde saw the knob move!

He pulled his hand away from the set as if it were on fire, his eyes moving from the joyful musical on the screen to the knob that he knew he saw moving just seconds before.

All of a sudden Hyde thought back to Kitty's ghost story and he felt his blood run cold. Could Red's mother really be haunting the house?

Hyde was never one to believe in ghosts nor did he scare too easily. And he wasn't scared now, he kept his Zen in place even though he was alone in the room—or at least he thought he could be alone in the room. Still he didn't favor the idea of being down in there by himself and maybe talking to Mrs. Forman would help some.

"Hey, Forman! Wait up!" he called out, his voice sill sounding calm and even, as he hurried to find his friend by jogging up the steps while _The_ _Lawrence_ _Welk_ _Show_ continued to play on the basement's television set.

0o0o0o

"But why would my grandma wanna haunt me? I was her only grandson." Eric reminded his best friend.

The two of them were sitting on the living room sofa—literally at the edge of their seats. They confided in each other the events they had witnessed or been a part of and while they wouldn't have believed the other if they hadn't gone through something themselves they believed each other now and had made the connection of the events being related to the late Bernice Forman who their mother believed was haunting her and apparently the house.

"Yeah, the only grandson that killed her." Hyde commented; he may have been a bit freaked out by the automatic channel changing TV in the basement but not enough to not tease Eric with the reminder of how Grandma Forman had died just seconds after Eric had told her 'It wouldn't kill you to be nice.'

"Right, right." Eric nodded his head but his tone didn't sound too persuaded, "And you almost stole her ring right off her dead body in the casket."

The words caused Hyde to give a mere shrug of his shoulders; he wasn't going to deny his actions. After all he was able to control himself and the ring stayed in its place. If he had to find a reason for why Red's mother was haunting him it would be a reason similar to Kitty's; the woman never liked him. But that was fine with him, he never cared much for her either especially with the way she treated Mrs. Forman.

"Alright, which one of you two losers did it?" Laurie demanded to know as she came down the living room stairs, stopping at in the middle of the staircase to put her hands on her hips and glare at the pair on the couch.

Eric jumped at the loudness of Laurie's voice and couldn't help but worry the '_it'_ Laurie was talking about was another paranormal activity, "Did what?"

"Took my diamond earrings." Laurie said in a 'you should know' kind of tone.

"Diamond earrings?" Hyde asked, sounding a bit surprised as he stared at the blonde; a faint smirk began to make his way to his lips, "Your pimp givin' you a bigger cut of the deals?"

Laurie looked back at him, keeping eye contact, "Not as big as the one he gives your mom."

Though Hyde was ready with his next comeback Eric spoke up before Hyde could get another word in. He both looked and sounded concerned as he asked, "Wait, Laurie, these diamond earrings…are they the ones you got after Grandma died?"

"Yeah, they belonged to Grandma." she nodded then an evil smile sprang into place, "Which is why unless you two tell me where they are, I'm telling Daddy and he'll kill whoever took them."

The two boys on the sofa exchanged worried looks before turning back to the blonde who was still on the staircase, tapping her foot as she waited for her answer.

"Laurie, I didn't take your earrings." Eric told her in the most serious and sincere tone he could speak in.

"I didn't get them either." said Hyde, but the unconvinced look Laurie was sending his way caused Hyde to stand up and pull the inside of his pockets out to prove he had nothing in them but a few pieces of lint, "See?"

Her arms went from her sides to being crossed over her chest as she stared down her brother and his best friend. Sure, they had said, and one of them even showed, that they didn't have her earrings but she didn't quite believe them and she wasn't going to stop trying to find a way to blame the disappearance of the earrings on them…or anyone close to them.

"Then it must have been one of your other loser friends." She concluded.

Again Eric frowned this time looking more confused than anything, "Why would Fez or Kelso be up in your room?"

"Bad question." Hyde quipped up.

"I know." Eric stated, his frown now flattened into a blank expression on his face, "I heard it when I said it." he looked over at his sister with pleading eyes, "Please, don't answer that question."

She shrugged, "Fine, I won't. _If_ you tell me who took my earrings."

Hyde and Eric looked at each other once again, exchanging looks and they had a silent conversation amongst themselves, trying to decide if they should tell Laurie what they had seen and what they believed was going on. She wouldn't believe them but she needed to be kept safe…right? No, that was right. She was family—unfortunately—and family stuck together. And apparently haunted each other from beyond the grave.

Laurie watched Hyde and Eric's wordless conversation with a puzzled expression on her face. She was just about ready to say something when Eric finally spoke up after taking in a deep breath.

"Laurie, none of us took your earrings. But I think I know who did." his words were said slowly and calmly and he took a long paused before adding on, "I think it was Grandma."

"_What_?"

Eric moved his head up and down as he elaborated some more, "Remember breakfast? Well I think all those things that Mom said had happened last night really did happen. And I think she might even be right about Grandma's ghost haunting the house."

As Laurie descended down the remainder of the stairs she rolled her eyes and said nothing, though her face showed her irritation the whole time, until she was standing behind the back of the sofa. She glanced down at Eric, "Just because you're a Mama's Boy doesn't mean you have to agree with everything she says."

"No, Laurie I'm serious. Okay?" Eric started to argue, "It wasn't just Mom that saw all that stuff. Both Hyde and I have experienced some scary eerie things tonight. And it's like ten times scarier and eerier than anything on _Scooby_ _Doo_ so I don't think we'll be pulling off any masks off any creepy neighbors."

Laurie turned the curly haired boy on her left, "He actually got you roped in on believing this too?"

"Hey, I' not a superstitious ghost believer either." Hyde said, he knew it wasn't easy to believe something like this—he only did because he'd seen it with his own eyes, "But there's some weird stuff going on in here. The TV started changing channels on its own."

"You were probably sitting on the remote." She said, unimpressed and not at all frightened.

"In the basement? _The basement that has a TV with no remote control?_" Eric was quick to remind, his voice become higher—a sign that his twitchiness was about to kick into high gear. "And what about me? I kept hearing someone call my name. A woman's voice, Laurie. I looked all over my room and the house, no one's here but the three of us."

Once more Laurie rolled her eyes, "You're both pathetic. Just give up, you didn't scare me and you're going to."

"Look, we're not trying to scare you." Hyde firmly told her.

"Yeah, we know only evil can scare evil." Eric added in "To scare you we'd need someone evil like Jackie to…Ow!"

While Eric rubbed his arm that Hyde had just frogged for making a not so nice comment about his girlfriend, Laurie still looked bored, annoyed, and most of all unconvinced. Seeing Laurie's reaction to all of this made Hyde scowl and even become a bit suspicious.

"Laurie, why can't you believe there could be something liked your Grandma haunting the house going on?" he asked, though when he said it out loud he could understand Laurie's skeptical feelings.

Eric frowned at his sister, "Yeah, Laurie. You're acting a lot like Dad. Why can't you admit it could be happening?

Abruptly the uninterested and irritated looks on Laurie's face crumbled into a look of distress and worry. Even her body language had changed; she had once been loose and normal but now seemed to be held up by nothing but tension. She looked at her brothers with fear shinning in her blue eyes.

"Because I'm scared!" she shouted at them, her voice sounding like she was holding in tears, "That's why!"

The outburst shocked the pair and all they could do was stare at this usually tough and feisty young woman brake down into a terrified mess.

"I know Grandma's ghost is here! _I_ _saw_ _her_! She was in my vanity mirror." Laurie continued to cry, her fearful eyes brimming with unshed tears, "She wants her earrings back, that why I need to find them!"

Finally Eric managed to find his voice and he outstretched an arm to place a comforting hand on his sister, "Oh my God. Laurie. Are you serious?"

For several seconds Laurie just looked back at her little brother with her eyes watering and her bottom lip trembling and then the unexpected happened; her lip stop trembling, her eyes dried, and her petrified expression was long gone having swiftly been replaced with her usual unenthusiastic look. She then shook her brother's hand off her arm.

"No. I'm just showing you how crazy the two of you sound right now." She explained to the two, neither appeared to be happy nor amused by her little trick. However, instead of gloating in her victory of tricking the two—there'd be time for that later—Laurie had another important statement to make, her eyes glared at them "There is no stupid ghost haunting this stupid house!"

_CRASH!_

The crashing sound of something falling and glass breaking instantly silenced the room and caused the three bodies to freeze in fright. No one dared to make a move or any kind of noise. The sound had come not a moment after Laurie's words had been said…she must have angered whoever was in the house with them.

Laurie's eyes had become large once again, if not even larger than before, as she stared straight ahead at the wall in front of her. Eric and Hyde had their back towards the wall that seemed to be scaring Laurie and had they not heard the noise themselves they wouldn't have given it a second thought—especially not after her latest prank—but they knew this time it couldn't have been a prank, she was standing right in front of them the whole time.

Slowly they both turned around to look at the wall that had captured Laurie's attention and when they saw the wall their reaction to the sight was similar to hers.

The wall behind the TV had a blank space on it. It wasn't any empty space though; it was an empty space where a Forman Family picture usually hung. Now that photo was down on the ground, shattered glass from the frame covering the photo of the family's smiling happy faces.

"Aaaahhhh!" Laurie screamed and then ran back up the stairs as fast as her legs could take her while Eric and Hyde followed not very far behind.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__So what did you think? Good? Bad? A little of both? Let me know in a review!_

_So any of you have any thoughts on what could be going on in The Forman House or do you wanna share what you did for the holiday? Feel free to do so, I would love to hear from you!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, and have a nice day!_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: **__I own nothing!_

_**Author's Note: **__Hello all! How are you? Hope you're doing well and have had a great week! TGIF right? Today I have for you a new and the last chapter of 'Things That Go Bump' I'm very sorry that it's a bit late in both the day it's being posted and at the time. I'm nearing the end of the semester of school and so it means its the time of year where they start throwing things at you that you have to try to balance out with fanfiction, my way of doing that is not getting too much sleep and I'm realizing it's not the best method. BUT enough about me! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your amazing support! It truly means so much! Your wonderful encouragement has really kept me excited about this story and made me want to work on it. This chapter is a bit longer than usual but it's the last chapter and those are either really short or really long. Once again a very BIG THANK YOU to Marla's Lost for giving me the idea for this story, allowing me to write the story, giving ideas, and giving wonderful words of support! Thank you Marla! Thanks for reading! Please review if you can, I'd love to hear you thoughts! Hope you like it! And as always, please, Enjoy!_

* * *

"Oh Red, that was such a wonderful dinner." Kitty said wearing a bright smile as she walked past the swinging door that her husband held open for her and made her way to the living room couch, "And then going to get ice cream after…I don't think we've gone out for ice cream this late at night with just us two since…I was pregnant with Laurie, I think."

A smirk crawled on to Red's lips as he thought back to the memory while taking a seat beside Kitty on the sofa, "I think that time had been even later, during one of your midnight cravings. I'll never forget the look on the guy's face when he saw you pull out that jar of peanut butter from your purse and spread it over your strawberry ice cream."

Hearing the sound of Red's chuckling made Kitty's own smile grow as she wrapped her arms around his right one and closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder and snuggling herself closer to his side. As Red's laughter quieted he look down at saw his wife's state and couldn't help but keep his smile in place. The couple was so consumed in each other they didn't notice the shattered family photo on the ground or the empty space it had left behind on the wall in front of them.

Red continued to watch Kitty, she really did seem much more relaxed and happier than she did when they had left the house. He was glad and while he was worried that brining up the subject would cause Kitty to tense up and become scared all over again, he needed to talk to her about it not just for him but for her sake too.

"So you had a good time?" he asked, easing into the topic.

Keeping her eyes closed and her smile painted on her lips, Kitty nodded against Red's shoulder, "Mmm hmm."

"And now that we're back home," Red started to say and then took a few moments to figure out the best way to phrase this, "you're feeling…?"

Though her head remained on his shoulder, Kitty did open her eyes and look up at Red as she replied, "Fine."

It was a good answer and one that brought some relief to Red but it still wasn't enough to assure him that things with his wife were really okay. He soon decided to try to help her out a bit.

"No more scared or eerie ghostly feelings?"

Now Kitty realized what he was up to. She moved her head off of him and while her smile seemed to shrink a tad, for the most part it stayed intact as if to help assure Red of her next words, "No more scared or eerie ghostly feelings, Red." She repeated to him, "I'm feeling much better."

"Good." he said before giving the top of her head a quick peck, making the missing inches of her grin reappear, "I guess this means…"

"You were right." Kitty filled in the blank.

The expression she wore on her face as she said her words showed that she was trying to look annoyed at having to admit this but the truth was she was a bit relieved that her husband's suspicion had been correct; after all, it meant there wasn't really the ghost of her evil mother-in-law in their house and most importantly she wasn't going crazy either!

Red smirked, who didn't enjoy the satisfaction of hearing that they were right? Of course what was even better than hearing that one was right was hearing that the other person had been wrong.

"And?" he asked, taking a shot at seeing if he would get to hear the second set of words.

Kitty knew what he was after but she wasn't giving in, so with a smile she continued on "And there isn't a ghost in our home."

"_And_?"

She cut her eyes at him, unwrapping her arms from around his to fold them over her chest, "_And_ you can fill in everything in between on your own."

"Alright, alright." Red agreed with a faint smirk as he moved his newly released arm to rest behind Kitty, "I'm just glad we're done with all that ghost crap. I still can't believe you actually thought my mother was haunting the house."

With an offend look on her face, Kitty turned to her husband, "Well maybe I didn't actually believe that at all. For all you know Red Forman, this could have all been part of my plan to get you to take me out to dinner."

Red wore a smile on his face at first, thinking that Kitty was joking but as she looked back at him with her eyebrows raised in a questioning kind of fashion his smile dropped and turned into a scowl. Maybe she wasn't joking. It had been awhile since they went out together to a nice dinner but Kitty wouldn't really resort to saying she was being haunted by his deceased mother? Would she?

Seeing the concentrated expression on Red's face broke Kitty's poker face and she let out a giggle.

"Oh Red, I'm only kidding." She told him grabbing his attention instantly, "Besides all those things that happened, you can't just make that kind of stuff up. I was really scared."

"You were?" Red asked with a frown.

He knew she had been startled and even a bit distressed—and stressed—about the whole thing but he never thought she was truly scared. Now he felt guilty for not doing a better job of making her feel better.

She moved her head up and down, "Of course I tried to be logical about it like you were but my mind was too shaken up to believe anything else but the idea of your mother haunting me. I guess it is kind of funny now that I think about it." she continued on, giggling softly, "All it really was, was me needing a night to take things off my mind. And what a night it was!" she gave an even louder and more joyful giggle.

Her happiness made Red's smirk reappear with much more mischief than before.

"The night's not over yet." he said huskily.

The pair caught the other's eyes, sharing a knowing look and without saying another word dashed up the living room stairway.

Kitty hurried through the upstairs hallway with her husband not far behind her; his playful laughter mixing with her own giggles. Just as soon as they reached their bedroom door, Red's hands came to rest upon Kitty's hips. She quickly pushed the door open, wanting to get her husband in there as soon as possible. However, the moment that the married couple stepped into their room they saw a sight that brought them to a screeching halt.

Their three children were lying on their bed. Laurie on Red's side, Eric's on Kitty's, while Hyde was seated at the foot of the bed.

Red and Kitty continued to stand there watching the scene in front of them. Kitty appeared to be more confused by what she saw while Red was just plain upset, but neither of their reactions were noticed by any of the kids as they were in the middle of a conversation and hadn't even heard their parents enter the room.

"Damn it, Kitty. I told you it was just a matter of time before they took over our bedroom too." Red grumbled to his wife.

The groan immediately caught the attentions of the three young adults on the bed and they turned to where the sound had come from. When they saw the two standing before them they were filled with relief and the expressions on their faces showed it. Of course some showed their relief more than others.

"Mommy!" Eric cried out, jumping out of the bed and sprinting over to his mother to embrace her in a tight hug, "You're okay!"

Hearing this had definitely confused Kitty but she tried to comfort her son by running her hand over the back of his head, "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

"We couldn't find you or Daddy anywhere." Laurie explained to her parents.

While Laurie and Hyde climbed out of the bed and headed to where the rest of the family was standing, Kitty exchanged a look with Red. She could have sworn he had said he was going to tell the kids they were leaving. And he had, but when Kitty got scared by the incoming storm he had stayed by her side forgetting to tell the kids anything.

"We…we went out to dinner." explained Kitty as she continued to hold Eric in her arms.

An appalled look appeared on Laurie's face when she heard this information, "We were worried sick about you!"

"You couldn't have left a note or picked up a phone?" a crossed armed Hyde asked in a parental kind of tone.

"I've got a better question." Red began in a much better parental tone, crossing his own arms over his chest, "What the hell are you three doing in our bedroom?"

There was a pause as the kids looked at each other…at least Laurie and Hyde did, Eric was still holding onto Kitty. They had so much to tell their parents but didn't know where to even begin.

"We got scared." Eric's reply was muffled a bit by his mother's shoulder that he currently had his face buried in.

"Scared? Oh honey, there's nothing to be scared of." Kitty soothingly told him and then look over at Laurie, "Laurie, what did you do to your brother?"

The young blonde shook her head back and forth, "It wasn't me, Mommy. It was Grandma!"

"Oh jeeze Laurie, not you too." Red groaned. He was used to having his daughter on his side of things and he never thought she would be one to believe in ghosts either. At least he still had one person who could help knock some sense into the rest of the family. Red turned to his surrogate son, "Steven, help me out here."

Hyde shook his head, "Sorry Red, I'm with them. I saw some weird stuff happen downstairs and it was because of too much po…p-Tarts."

The Pop-Tarts cover up earned Hyde some frowns from both of his adopted parents. Kitty's frown was filled with much more concern as she worried that all the kids had eaten while she and Red were out were Pop-Tarts. Meanwhile Red's scowl was not as concerned and he had a feeling Pop-Tarts was not what Hyde had intended on saying. Before Red could say anything though, Hyde continued to speak.

"I think Mrs. Forman was right, man." He said, "Your mom's haunting the house."

Kitty's head swiftly turned to Red, she may have been still trying to help her son feel better but the look in her eyes told Red that she was getting scared all over again.

Red closed his eyes in frustration; he thought they were done with this! He had finally gotten Kitty to feel safe again and these dumbasses had ruined it, just like they'd ruined 'the moment' by being in the bedroom…he really needed to add more locks in this house. But first he needed to put an end to this ghost business once and for all and it looked like he was on his own in doing so.

Reopening his eyes, Red stared at his family with a firm frown indented on his forehead, "My mother's ghost is not haunting our damn house."

"Daddy, be careful! She can hear you!" Laurie hissed to her father, remembering the picture frame falling only seconds after she made a similar comment.

He looked skywards for a moment and tried again, "There is no ghost!"

"There is no ghost? There is no ghost?" Eric repeated the question twice as he at last pulled himself out of his mother's arms, "Okay, Dad you can say and think that all you want but _there_ _is_ a ghost in here, that very well could be Grandma Forman. You might not believe it but we do, and we don't just believe it we know it. We know it because we've _seen_ _and_ _heard_ things. I heard a woman calling my name but there was no one there! How do you explain that?"

"With one simple question, son." Red replied in a calm manner before his scowl deepened and he sternly questioned, "Are you on dope?"

"Dad!" Eric exclaimed throwing his head back and his hands up in the air.

Laurie could see her brother's aggravation and so she decided to step in and hope that the reminder of her being the favorite would help get her father to not only listen to what she had to say but also have him take her seriously.

"It's true Daddy," she insisted, "My diamond earrings that belonged to Grandma are missing."

Red's gruffness softened a bit at seeing his little girl so frightened, "Kitten, you probably left them at your friend Louise's house."

"Louise? Who's Louise?" she asked with a scrunched up face; she didn't know any Louise. The she suddenly remembered the friend she had made up at breakfast this morning, "Oh right! _Louise_! Maybe I did!"

It was a possibility.

His daughter's response made Red a bit of a happier man; little did he know that even though Laurie was willing to let that explanation explain the whereabouts of her missing earrings, she was still terrified at the incident that had caused her and the boys to shut themselves in the master bedroom. The only room in the house where there hadn't been any paranormal activity.

"But Daddy, our family photo fell off the wall and the glass broke." Laurie informed, hoping this one would make her father believe.

Kitty's eyes widened at hearing this, "Not our _Sears_ family portrait?" as soon as she saw her daughter nod, Kitty looked at Red—her fearful look back in her eyes, "Red…"

"Kitty, that doesn't prove anything." Red tried to reason, "It was probably an old nail holding up the photo and it just gave out." when he saw Kitty didn't look all too relieved he turned to Hyde figuring if he cleared up all these experiences it would put everyone at ease—especially his wife, "What about you? What ghostly encounter did you have?"

Hyde didn't speak right away. Red had been able to put reasonable explanations behind the other events—well, for the most part—had he been overreacting too? Was there really a reasonable explanation behind the TV changing on its own? Even as he thought about it he realized his answer.

"The TV in the basement started changing channels on its own." He said, Zen in place as he added, "No one else was in the room with me."

"There's a storm coming in, it's probably messing with the stations." Red answered without giving it too much though and when he saw the blank stares on his kid's faces he smirked and knew he'd won the case. "There, now that we've got all of that settled I think we can all agree that our house is not being haunted by your grandmother's ghost or any other ghost. So, everybody out!"

Red waited for no response and instead started rounding up the three and leading them over to the door.

"But Daddy." Laurie tried to stop him by using her best innocent voice.

He shook his head, "No, 'but's."

"But Dad…"

"What did I say about 'but's, Eric?" Red asked, keeping the three moving.

Not ready to give up Eric quickly fixed his words, "_However_…"

"I don't wanna hear it." Red interrupted before Eric could say more, they were now standing right in front of the room's exit and Red pointed his index finger at them, "And if I hear another word about a ghost haunting this house my foot is gonna be haunting your ass. Got it?"

The three instantly nodded their heads in an understanding manner before turning around to leave the room.

Eric's voice saying, "Now I'm even more scared than before." was the last thing Red and Kitty heard before he shut the door giving them back the privacy that they had come up here for.

Red turned to his wife, with a shark like grin, "Now where were we?"

He started to approach her but Kitty took two steps back and crossed her arms over her chest; her smile from before was nowhere to be found.

"Red Forman, how can you expect me to pick up right where we left off when my poor babies are scared and starving?" she wanted to know.

His shoulder's dropped "Kitty, they're fine."

"They are not fine, Red." She argued, "What they need is some TLC and some BLTs." Kitty declared and then shook her head, "I'm going downstairs with them."

"Kitty…" Red groaned as he watched her walk towards the door.

Before opening the door, Kitty turned to look at him "No Red, our children need to be comforted right now, not be thrown some 'reasonable explanations.'"

"But Kitty, I was trying to comfort you!" he called after her but it was no use and Kitty was already out of the room and walking down the same hallway that the two of them had jovially walked down only minutes ago.

0o0o0o

Red entered the avocado colored kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. He had been expecting to find Kitty and the kids in there but from the sound of the faint voices it appeared that they were in the basement.

He wasn't sure if he was happy that he had found the kitchen bare or if he was upset by it, however, when he found the leftover ingredients from the BLTs Kitty had made the kids he found himself leaning more towards one way than the other. It wasn't the damn vegetables that grabbed his attention, it was the plate of crisp bacon, resting near the stovetop, that seemed to be calling his name.

Recently he'd been put on an even stricter diet and unlike the last time Kitty was watching him like a hawk. He hadn't had a single piece of bacon in what felt like forever.

Cautiously he stepped closer to the plate and looked to the left and then to the right to make sure the coast was clear.

When he saw nobody there Red took hold of one of the forbidden pieces of bacon and raised it to his lips; but before he could take a bite he felt a soft tap on his left shoulder.

Immediately Red turned in the direction but there was nothing there. He looked to the opposite side but still found nothing. Figuring it was some type of fluke, Red shrugged it off and got ready to bite into the full sized bacon strip until he heard a familiar voice.

"Reginald Albert Forman, you put that piece of bacon down this instant. You know you have no business eating that type of food with how high your cholesterol is."

With a frown drawn onto his forehead Red followed the voice which led him to the round table where he found someone seated in one of the seats. But it wasn't just someone, it was his mother…or at least something that looked like his mother...her signature cigarette found between her fingers.

Red couldn't believe his eyes, "Ma?"

"Yes, it's me." the ghostly figure nodded, "Now put that bacon back and come have some pie instead."

Still filled with disbelief, Red somehow managed to move his feet and walk towards the table where his 'mother' was. He slowly took a seat—leaving one seat between them—and looked down to find a small blueberry pie waiting for him. It was just like the ones she used to make him when he was younger.

He felt like he was in a dream. He couldn't believe that this was real, sitting at the table with his mother who had passed away over a year ago. It had to be a dream…right?

Bernice stared at her son, waiting, "Well, go on and eat it."

Very, very cautiously Red picked up the fork that was resting beside the dish and cut it into the pie. He wasn't sure what he was more worried about, what would happen if he ate it or what would happen if he didn't.

Carefully Red moved the fork up and opened his mouth to take the piece of pie. It tasted just as it always did. It was a real pie. Which meant this was real. Which meant…

"It really was you." he said, he may have figured things out but he was still having trouble wrapping his mind around the whole idea, "You were haunting the kids?"

"I was not _haunting_ them. I was spending quality time with them. After all they never wanted to spend time with me when I was alive." Bernice's spirit explained, "And now I know why. Do you have any idea what those delinquents are up to in that basement of yours? I know it's something you would never approve of so I assume it was that wife of yours who gave them…"

The mention of Kitty grabbed Red's attention and reminded him of how scared she had been through all this,

"Kitty. Why were you haunting Kitty?" Red wanted to know.

The ghost of Bernice sat up a bit straighter, "Well, I'm not sure if you knew this or not but I never liked Kitty all that much I'm afraid."

"Really." he replied in a tone that showed that this was not news to him; although his mother seemed to interrupt it differently.

"It's true." she nodded moving her cigarette from her lips, "I tried not to show my dislike for her so that you weren't put in the middle of things. My plan when I first started haunting her was to scare her enough to run her out of the house and out of your life or into an asylum. Either one would work."

Red's scowl increased at hearing this but Bernice went on.

"Then I planned on paying a visit to Betty Parker. You remember her don't you? I always wished you had married Betty Parker. She was a beautiful, tall young woman who came from a very wealthy family that…"

"I remember her, Ma. But I never loved her, I've always loved Kitty." Red firmly stated; although part of him was still having trouble believing he was having a conversation with his mother's ghost.

Bernice nodded once more, "I see that now." She gave a short pause, "Since I came here I've seen how much you love Kitty and how much she loves you. And even how happy she's made you."

"And now you like her?"

"No." The spirit was quick to reply as she took a drag of her smoke, "But I can tolerate her much more than I could when I was alive."

Red frowned a bit at hearing this and Bernice's ghost noticed so she continued on.

"In a mother's eyes no woman is ever really good enough for her son." She explained to Red, "It's always hard for a mother to let go of her children. Watching them grow up is a sweet but also very heartbreaking to witness. Unfortunately, the only person in this family who understands this is Kitty."

This statement made Red think about Kitty and the way she had been acting with the kids getting ready to graduate from high school. The Halloween costumes she missed making them and going to comfort them just now. Before Red could think too much more about it Bernice spoke again.

"And Marty. But visiting Marty can be a drag with his constant crying."

Hearing about his brother made Red chuckle a bit until he realized he hadn't seen the guy since their mother's funeral and that hadn't been all that great either. Thinking back to that day just for a few moments reminded Red of how he'd felt guilty about the last words he said to his mother were 'show me the taillights.' Now he had a chance to fix that.

"Ma, the day you…died…my last words to you…" he cleared his throat and looked down at the pie, "Those weren't what I wanted my last words to you to be. I…"

Bernice gave her son an understanding smile, "I know and I love you too, Red."

Red smiled back at the vision of his mother, glad that that had been taken care of however, he did still have one concern that still needed to be addressed.

"You're done haunting everyone, right?"

"I suppose I am." She replied sounding disappointed and then put her cigarette to her lips for a moment before pulling it away, "But it really was so much fun."

Not being able to help it, Red chuckled, "Well as long as you don't bother my kids or Kitty, you can haunt the kids that think they live here all you want."

She thought it over before nodding her head "I think I can work with that."

Though Red wasn't certain if this was really his mother…or for that matter his mother's spirit…or not but just seeing her image made him want to say his next words.

"I miss you, Ma."

"I know." The ghost of Bernice confirmed with a smile that soon shrunk, "Someone is coming so I'll need to leave soon. But don't you forget to stick to your diet and eat less fat, which includes bacon! I know it'll be difficult considering how much of it your wife makes…it's as if she's trying to send you to an early grave." She ranted, "But I do not want you joining me too soon. You have a family and a wife to take care of. So if you don't stick to your diet, you'll be the next person I haunt."

Red couldn't help up smirk, "Yes, ma'am."

And just like that she was gone.

For a few moments Red sat alone at the table thinking about what had just happened when the sudden noise of footsteps caused him to turn around and find his wife entering the kitchen from the basement.

"Kitty." he said, getting up from his seat and stepping towards her, "How're the kids?"

"They're fine. I gave them their sandwiches and cocoa, now their wrapped up in their blankets watching cartoons on TV." Kitty explained while picking up the mess she'd left behind from the sandwich making.

"Kitty, you're babying them." Red said with a scowl but when Kitty glared back at him, he thought back to his mother's words about mothers and their children; he gave his best smile, "Which is fine since you're their mother and they're your babies."

While Kitty wasn't sure what had caused Red to change his tone so quickly she didn't question it and instead nodded and went back to tiding things up. That is until Red gently took hold of her arm and turned her to face him.

"Look Kitty, I'm sorry that I didn't believe you and the kids about the ghost thing." he started to tell her, his tone sounding sincere, "I should've taken you seriously and not just shot down the things you said happened with reasonable explanations."

Kitty stared up at her husband with a confused look on her face, "Red, are you saying you think there really is a ghost in our house?"

Red looked down at Kitty not sure of how to respond not only because he still wasn't quite sure what that had been moments ago, but because he was also worried about how Kitty would react to any answer he gave. If he said 'yes' she would get scared but if he said 'no' she would think he still didn't believe her.

"There might be a ghost, there might not be." he began to say when suddenly there was the sound of a door shutting; it made Kitty jump a bit and Red smirk, "But I think if there was one it just left the building."

"Well I don't know if you mean it or not but I hope you're right." Kitty said as she moved her hand up to the side of her head, "Everything that's happened these past two days has made me a nervous wreck."

Slipping an arm around Kitty's shoulder, Red's smirk grew, "I think I know something that'll cheer you up."

0o0o0o

It was Halloween night, just about two weeks had passed since the last paranormal activity occurred and nothing spooky had happened since. The family didn't speak much about the incidents—mostly because they were afraid bringing them up would cause them to reappear. And so Red kept his ghostly encounter to himself as well.

Eric, Hyde, and Laurie stood in front of the glass sliding door in the kitchen. Laurie stood in the middle while Eric was on her left and Hyde at her right. They didn't look very happy but it could have a little to do with the fact that what they were wearing wasn't anything close to their normal clothes.

Laurie had a black headband in her hair, wore a blue dress with a white apron on top and matching stockings while Eric and Hyde wore matching yellow and red costumes of Tweedledum and Tweedledee—complete with propeller hats.

Okay, it had a lot to do with what they were wearing.

"Ugh! Do we really have to wear these dumb costumes all night?" Laurie groaned in annoyance

"Hey at least you're not dressed as Tweedledum." Hyde commented—not even Zen could save this costume.

Hearing Hyde's comment, Eric raised up a finger to interject, "Um actually, Hyde I think you're Tweedledee and _I'm_ Tweedledum."

Both Hyde and Laurie turned to send murderous looks Eric's way but it was Hyde who sent his fist into Eric's boney arm.

"Ow!" the skinner man cried and rubbed his injury, "Mom, why do you have to take pictures? Isn't us wearing the costumes bad enough?"

From his spot beside his photographer wife, Red scowled at his son, "Your mother worked hard on making these costumes for the three of you, the least you can do put them on and let her take a damn picture."

"She already taken a roll full of them" whined Laurie.

Red's frown stayed in place as he moved his gaze to his daughter, "And she can take another roll full if she wants. It's her God-given right as a mother."

While their children groaned again Kitty looked back at her husband to smile a 'thank you' to him and then went right back to picture taking.

As she snapped another photo, Kitty could sense her kids were starting to get fussy, "Okay, okay last one, I promise. Ready? One…two…three….Cheese!"

"Cheese." The three said together although it didn't seem to help their strained and tried smiles.

The second the flash went off the 'smiles' came off and the trio broke apart ready to leave the room and change back into their regular clothes. Kitty saw this and quickly stepped in front of them, blocking their path.

"Oh now wait, I bought these little trick-or-treat bags for you all." she said handing them the plastic bags, "In case you decide to go out and show off your costumes and get some free candy."

Despite her giggle not one of the three smiled in return.

"No thank Mrs. Forman, I gotta meet up with Jackie in a bit." Hyde explained.

Eric looked at the bags still in his mother's hands, "Yeah, I think we're a little too old for trick-or-treating, Mom."

Laurie's answer was much more honest.

"No." she said with a look of disgust direct towards the bags.

"Okay fine." Kitty agreed, placing the bags on the table, "It's too bad too, I heard most of the neighbors this year were giving out full sized candy bars."

There was a quick—very quick—pause before three pairs of hands reached to the table, each grabbing one of the candy bags, and just like that the three _Alice_ _in_ _Wonderland_ characters raced out the side door.

"Move out of my way Tweedledorks!" Laurie ordered as she shoved past the two, putting herself in the lead.

Sharing a laugh, Red and Kitty watched their children run off and out of the house.

"Guess we won't be seeing them anytime soon." Red commented.

"Nope." Kitty agreed, "It's a good thing too, they're having a scary movie marathon on channel eight."

Red's eyebrows rose with interest, "They are?"

Nodding her head Kitty replied, "Mmm hmm. Are you up for some comforting on the living room couch?"

The smirk on Red's lips answered Kitty's question and the two soon hurried of into the next room to begin their movie night marathon.

**The End**

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__So what did you think? Good ending? Terrible ending? Somewhere between? Let me know what you thought in a review!_

_I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter and this story and thank you so much to all of your wonderful readers. Your kind words and support truly mean so, so much! *hugs* Thank You! I'm really glad you all enjoyed this Halloween like tale. The next holiday is Thanksgiving and I do have a story to go with it, it's called 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' in case your interested._

_And one more big THANK YOU to Marla! *hug* Without her there would be no story at all. I never would have been able to come up with a story idea like this on my own. Thank you for letting me use the idea Marla, I truly had so much fun writing it!_

_Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, take care, and have a nice day!_


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